The North of England and South of England teams appeared in first-class cricket between the 1836 and 1961 seasons, most often in matches against each other but also individually in games against touring teams, MCC and others.
Until international cricket became firmly established towards the end of the 19th century, the North v. South match was one of the major fixtures in the cricketing calendar along with Gentlemen v Players. Indeed it was really the major fixture because whereas the Gentlemen teams were often very weak, North v. South could potentially showcase the best 22 players in the country.
In all, the North played against the South 155 times in first-class matches.
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The inaugural North v. South fixture was held at Lord’s on 11 & 12 July 1836 and the North won by 6 wickets.[1]
The first four games took place between 1836 and 1838 but then the fixture disappeared for eleven years until it was resurrected in the 1849 season. There were two matches in 1836 and one each in 1837 and 1838.
One of the features of the fixture right from the start was that players could play for either team depending on current residency; or if they were "borderline", thus a player in the Midlands might well change sides often. In the first four games alone, no less than six players represented both sides.
The total appearances by players in the 1836 to 1838 matches were:
From 1849, the match became virtually an annual fixture and was often contested two or three times in the same season.
During the 1870s the fixture received competition in the shape of matches between the equivalent professional touring teams, the United North of England Eleven and the United South of England Eleven. There were 11 games involving the United sides and then one (the last) in 1880 when the United South played against the official North.
The fixture's popularity waned as international cricket expanded and it was played less frequently in the 20th century until it was finally ended with the advent of limited overs cricket, which left no space for it in an already crowded calendar. Ironically, the last North v. South contest was itself a one-day match: in the 1971 season, there was a 50 over match at Trent Bridge, which the South won by 9 runs.[2]